Concert Review (2025) The Who @ Madison Square Garden "The Song Is Over Tour"

 As the Who took the stage Pete Townshend informed the audience it was the 36th time they had played in that building. New York had always been a second home to the Who with the area being their largest US fanbase. 

The Who & Madison Square Garden: Some of their MSG highlights include, 1974 their first MSG Shows for four nights, in 1979 they started their first US Tour without Keith Moon with new drummer Kenny Jones for five nights at MSG. In 2001 they stole the show at an emotional star-studded Concert for NY after the 911 attacks, which turned out to be John Entwistle's last US live performance. In 1996 & 2012 they performed Quadrophenia in its entirety over a total eight nights, in 2019 they performed with an orchestra & now in 2025 they played their final New York gig. 

Farewell Tour: The Who had Farewell tours before, dating as far back as 1982 but now as Pete Townshend & Roger Daltry are in their eighties, it's most likely the last one just as the two keep stressing. It's hard to see & very humbling of our own mortality to see our heroes grow old, but it can also be an emotional uplifting experience as well. We all survived & made it this far!

At the end of the show Pete said he has been in a band with Roger since 1961 when he told him to join his band. "You better" Roger added. The Wholigan fan base have been lifers as well, growing up as well as older with them thru it all. Personally, I have been a fan almost 50 years with the Who being one of my top favorites. Majority of the sold-out crowd were over 40 or 50 years old (how did this happen?) but were on their feet singing & dancing the whole night. There were some young people like my nephew who really enjoyed the show & a young man in front of us, who came alone playing air guitar, rocking thru the whole show. Proving again, how the Who are timeless, the admiration of the New York fan base was displayed thru the night.

Gone are the days of Roger's flowing long hair with his open shirts flaunting his muscular biceps. He rarely twirls his microphone as he did in the old days at high the speed & distances. Gone are the days of Pete leaping thru the air & smashing guitars kicking over amplifiers. But the Who's music will always hold up & as a live act they continue to make it work.

This is a band that survived the sixties, drugs, alcoholism, in house fighting, hearing loss, a 1979 concert stampede that killed 11 teens in Cincinnati & of course losing two of it founding members as well as two of the best rock musicians of their craft in drummer Keith Moon & bassist John Entwistle. Somehow Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey survived, carried on & remained one of the most popular rock bands of all time.

This was my seventh time seeing the Who, it may not have been the best Who show I ever saw, but
it certainly was a great one. Only the ageless Rolling Stones can still perform or exceed at this level. The angry, hard aggressiveness of the Who is their legend & it's amazing how they can maintain that spirit in their live performance even at eighty.

Personally, I was skeptical going to the show, not wanting my legendary status of the band tarnished in the end. Roger Daltry one of my favorite singers of all time with one the most powerful voices in rock n roll, was having vocal issues early on in the tour, saying he didn't think he'd make thru the tour. Would Pete still be able to play at his level? And would they survive without long time drummer Zak Starkey, Ringo's kid? Zak's godfather was his father's close friend Keith Moon & another close friend Kenny Jones helped teach him to play. You can't get more Who than that?

For the most part Roger Daltry's voice was amazingly on point, still with that classic edge to it, even able to hit a few of his legendary screams. But there were a few times where he struggled, notably breaking down in the end of Love Reign O'er Me, & missing a verse in Won't Get Fooled again. His frustration with his struggle was noticeable, but somehow this professional managed to recover & regain form. Pete gave him another chance at Love Reign O'er Me & he nailed, getting a huge ovation from the crowd.

Pete Townshend is an artistic genius who could never get all the things in his head out to record it. I consider him one of the best acoustic guitar players with some of the best acoustic guitar work on record. Of course, his electric & lead guitar work in exceptional & under rated. On this night, he may have made a mistake or two, but he was fantastic still possessing a ferocious style of attacking his guitar playing, even giving us a few of his classic windmills to which erupted the crowd. Petes vocals were off a few times as well but at other times he was as good as always.

I thought he was outstanding on I'm One, with the surprise Long Live Rock being another
Townshend vocal highlight. 

The shows openers I Can't Explain & Substitute were fantastic, so classic in setting the mood for the night ahead. My all-time favorite Who Are You was done perfectly with new drummer Scott Devours exceeding my curiosities. 

Quotes- Pete Townshend: "I'm sure you people all work hard for a living, let me tell you this job is fu@@ng easy. I'm sure Roger would disagree."

Tommy: Although wishing I would get more songs from Tommy, Pinball Wizard got the crowd excited & See Me Feel Me was certainly one of the highlights of the night.

Who's Next: They performed six of the eight songs from Who's Next, including the ultimate classics Won't Get Fooled Again & Baba O'Reily which always bring down the house. Baba O'Reily had violinist Katy Jacoby join in the ending as Roger played harmonica in a climatic finish. 

For some nostalgic reason maybe, no matter how old the band or audience gets, "Teenage Waste land- They're all wasted" is something everyone shouts with some extra adrenal flowing inside.

As mentioned earlier, I'm One was a Townshend highlight, with his younger brother Simon Townshend taking the lead on an incredible version of Going Mobile. The classic Behind Blue Eyes was another great moment with the crowd singing lead on the fourth verse.

Townshend introduced what was an outstanding version of My Generation saying, " At our age, we shouldn't be playing this, but- f**k it!" They went into a little jam & dropped in Cry If You Want, from a very underrated Its Hard album (1982). 

Also from the Kenny Jones era, they did You Better You Bet from 1981's Face Dances. Roger did another incredible job with this powerful vocal on another late classic. "To the sound of old T-Rex & Who's Next"................

Quadrophenia: The next set featured four songs from Quadrophenia, one of the night's best
segue's starting out with The Real Me which Roger sand perfectly & the band covered just as good, After I'm One there was a kick ass version of 5:15 as well.

It was on Love Reign O'er Me were Roger had some difficulty as mentioned earlier but he recovered well. On Won't Get Fooled Again Roger did hit the classic screams of "yeaaa" getting the crowd to a Who euphoria.

The show consisted of 22 songs lasting just under two hours. The other players were Simon Townshend (guitars) Scott Devours (drums) Jon Burton (bass) Loren Gold (keyboards) Jody Linscott (percussion) John Hogg (backing vocals).

After Baba O' Reily, the band completely turned things around to fittingly do an emotional version of the Who's Next tune, The Song Is Over which they named the tour. Roger & Pete closed out the show with Tea & Theater, from 2006's Endless Wire, one of the last great songs Pete has written.

Tea & Theater: "We did it all, didn't we? This story is done; it's getting colder now. All of us free, before we walk from this stage, two of us".

Many times, when a band performs you don't know it's the last time you'll be seeing them, in a case like this it was kind of emotional as you know it's that last time you'll be in the building with your old friends who gave you so much happiness thru life.

The Who Set List - August 30th, 2025

I Can't Explain

Substitute

Who Are You

The Seeker

Long Live Rock

Pinball Wizard

See Me Feel Me

Love Ain't for Keeping

Behind Blue Eyes

Eminence Front

My Generation

Cry If You Want

You Better You Better You Bet

Going Mobile

The Real Me

I'm One

5:15

Love Reign O'er Me

Won't Get Fooled Again

Baba O'Riley

The Song is Over

Tea & Theater 

all photos getty images & centerfieldmaz